Friday, July 23, 2010

My Reply to an Objection to Mary's Intercession at the Wedding at Cana

This evening as I was doing some of my apologetics work on The Catholic Forum, I came across this statement by a gentlemen questioning (objecting) to Mary's intercession at the Wedding at Cana (John 2:11). Here's what this gentleman said:

"Christ performed the miracle - under no ones direction :/ Mary simply stated 'they have no wine'. It could have merely been an appeal to fix an embarrassing situation, or an appeal that He reveals Himself in glory. It was not a direction or an order. His reply was hardly intimate, as He made it clear He will act according to Gods timetable in Gods way (CF: Luke 2:49)."

And here's how I responded:

If I could also make a comment about the Wedding at Cana miracle, I think what you're missing, Allen, is that there would not have been a miracle had Mary not pointed out the problem to Jesus. Also consider the fact that Mary knew her Son could do something about it, so did she really need to explicitly make such a request? My older brother is an I.T. specialist and whenever I have a computer related problem, all that is required is a quick text message (e.g. "My router isn't working") and he's on his way to assist. My brother knows by pointing out the problem to him that I want him to fix it for me because he is qualified to rectify the issue.

Jesus did respond to his mother by saying, "Woman, what is that to me and to thee? my hour is not yet come" (John 2:4) but what's important to note is what Mary said to the servants in the next very verse: "Do whatever he tells you to do".

There is no indication to us in scripture that Mary made an explicit request of her Son, but that's not to say that such a request may not have ever happened at all. Don't forget that John points out that not all of what even Jesus said or did is contained in scripture (John 21:25) and so needless to say there's a lot we're missing out on there. There very well could have been an explicit request made to Jesus by his mother, Mary.

There is the implicit request made in the pointing out of a problem as I pointed out earlier, but make note of Jesus' change of heart: whether there was an explicit request made or not, Jesus acknowledged the problem pointed out to him by his mother and she knew he could do something about it. Implicit or explicit, Jesus honoured the "request" and by doing so honoured his mother; he was a commandment-keeping Jew after all.

Proudly Australian of Maltese descent

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About Me

I live in Perth, Western Australia, but was born in Melbourne, Victoria. I'm Australian by birth but my heritage stems from southern Europe, mainly the island country of Malta, the heart of the Mediterranean.
By profession I am a high-school teacher, specialising in Religious Education (Catholic) and English.
I have been teaching since 2005 but before that was a journalist. I still write the odd article from time to time.
I'm married with two children, and am looking forward to having more kids with my beautiful wife.